Saturday, 20 October 2012

A MOMENT OF THE SPECIAL SESSION IN THE 15WCEE IN LISBON, SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

The Special Session in the 15WCEE on “The role of architecture and urban planning in the earthquake-resilience of cities: Encouraging cross-disciplinary engagement” was held on September 27, 2012, at the Centro de Congressos in Lisbon, with the purpose of:

- Hosting a panel of presenters who talked on the aspects of the stated topic.

- Providing an open discussion forum on these topics for those in attendance.

- Helping to establishing a network of interested individuals and organizations who could continue to discuss these topics and share information.

Frederick Krimgold, Director of The Disaster Risk Reduction Program of The Advanced Research Institute of Virginia Tech, Blacksburg (USA).

Andrew Charleson, Director of The Earthquake Hazard Centre, Wellington (New Zealand), Director of The International Association of Earthquake Engineering (IAEE) and the Editor-In-Chief of The World Housing Encyclopedia.

· Discussion on the main topics

· Presentation of the “Lisbon Manifesto” and foundation of the International Network for the Design of Earthquake Resilient Cities (INRDC) in English; and in Spanish: Red Internacional para el Diseño de Ciudades Sísmicamente Resilientes (RIDCSR).

Such a wide diversity of professionals with different nationalities and representing a wide variety of organizations shows the high importance of this topic and of the objectives expressed through the Special Session blog.

The presentation of the “Lisbon 2012 INDERC Manifesto” identifying the main problems involving the cross disciplinary engagement of professionals on the design of earthquake resilient cities, as well as the main objectives and following actions, was one of the relevant moments of the Special Session.

The 2012 Lisbon INDERC Manifesto

International Network for Design of Earthquake-Resilient Cities (INDERC)

1. Having participated in the Special Session “The role of architecture and urban planning in the earthquake resilience of cities” of the 15th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering.

2. Recognizing that:

· The design of cities has a critical effect on their ability to absorb, respond to and recover from the effects of earthquakes.

· This goes beyond the structural strength of buildings, the physical resilience of lifelines and critical infrastructure, and geotechnical engineering.

· The earthquake resilience of cities includes the design and layout of cities and their components, the consideration of earthquake hazards in this design, and their relationship to how communities and authorities alike can respond to and recover from earthquakes.

· There is a need of communication professional exchange and cooperation between those professionals who are interested in examining and applying earthquake-resilient design and the consideration of earthquake hazards generally, in the fields of architecture, urban design, urban planning, and landscape architecture.

· It is important that a multidisciplinary approach should be taken to the gathering and implementation of knowledge on this subject. Means to foster communication and collaboration; between the fields of engineering, design and planning, emergency management, and policy and government, will be formed and promoted.

Propose:

The creation of the International Network for Design of Earthquake-Resilient Cities is to:

- Provide a hub for multidisciplinary knowledge exchange about design for earthquake-resilience of cities through an open network of individuals and organisations.

- Encourage engagement with all disciplines concerned with the aim of earthquake-resilient cities.

- Identify areas for study and development within the fields of architecture, urban design, urban planning, and landscape architecture that consider urban resilience from the effects of earthquakes as a part of best-practice design.

- Promote educational initiatives such as cross-disciplinary courses in schools of architecture, urban planning and structural engineering, including the influence of urban planning and architectural configurations on seismic resilience of cities.

- Assist in the advancement of resilient design principles in city planning policy and building regulations, through the collaboration between engineering and design disciplines and policy makers.

INITIAL MOMENTS OF THE SPECIAL SESSION "THE ROLE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING IN EARTHQUAKE-RESILIENCE OF CITIES"INTO THE 15WCEE. SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 IN LISBON, PORTUGAL